Impact winter

For the episode of The West Wing, see Impact Winter (The West Wing).
Artistic impression of an asteroid slamming into tropical, shallow seas of the sulfur-rich Yucatán Peninsula in what is today Southeast Mexico. The aftermath of this immense asteroid collision, which occurred approximately 66 million years ago, is believed to have caused the mass extinction of non-avian dinosaurs and many other species on Earth. The impact spewed hundreds of billions of tons of sulfur into the atmosphere, producing a worldwide blackout and freezing temperatures which persisted for at least a decade.[1]

An impact winter is a hypothesized period of prolonged cold weather due to the impact of a large asteroid or comet on the Earth's surface. If an asteroid were to strike land or a shallow body of water, it would eject an enormous amount of dust, ash, and other material into the atmosphere, blocking the radiation from the Sun. This would cause the global temperature to decrease drastically.[quantify][2][3] If an asteroid or comet with the diameter of about 5 km (3.1 mi) or more were to hit in a large deep body of water or explode before hitting the surface, there would still be an enormous amount of debris ejected into the atmosphere.[2][3][4] It has been proposed that an impact winter could lead to mass extinction, wiping out many of the world's existing species. The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event probably involved an impact winter, and led to mass extinction of most tetrapods weighing more than 25 kilograms (55 pounds).[5]

  1. ^ Osterloff, Emily (2018). "How an asteroid ended the age of the dinosaurs". London: Natural History Museum. Archived from the original on 26 April 2022. Retrieved 18 May 2022.
  2. ^ a b CHAPMAN, CR; MORRISON, D. (1994), "Impacts on the Earth by Asteroids and Comets - Assessing the Hazard" (PDF), Nature, 367 (6458): 33–40, Bibcode:1994Natur.367...33C, doi:10.1038/367033a0, S2CID 4305299
  3. ^ a b MACCRACKEN, MC; Covey, C.; Thompson, S.L.; Weissman, P.R. (1994), "Global Climatic Effects of Atmospheric Dust from An Asteroid or Comet Impact on Earth", Global and Planetary Change, 9 (3–4): 263–273, Bibcode:1994GPC.....9..263C, doi:10.1016/0921-8181(94)90020-5
  4. ^ Lewis, John S. (1997), Rain Of Iron And Ice: The Very Real Threat Of Comet And Asteroid Bombardment, Helix Books, ISBN 978-0-201-48950-7
  5. ^ Muench, David; Muench, Marc; Gilders, Michelle A. (2000). Primal Forces. Portland, Oregon: Graphic Arts Center Publishing. p. 20. ISBN 978-1-55868-522-2.